Hope
by KiahTrickster
Summary: Sam sits down to write a few personal notes on research that has a personal side for her.


_Hope_

_'Life is a delicate and complex thing closely connected to the earth which sustains it in so many forms.'_

Sam traced her fingers over the words scrawled in her father's hand and dated so many years ago. It was something he had said often, he used that saying to encourage and challenge himself as well as others.

Sam had considered those words herself more than once. Life wasn't always what she hoped but it was worth living. And it was so intricately attached to the earth; to nature. It amazed her, both how little people valued the earth in its natural state and how little they looked around; looked back. Sometimes the answer was in the past. In her mind it was one of the reasons research was suffering today. And in turn people suffered.

It was not how this was meant to be, hidden in the strangest places, in the smallest details and sometimes the simplest things were answers. Out there somewhere, just waiting to be revealed. It might change thousands of lives, or even just one, the potential could not be known until it was explored. That exploration of nature was something that touched hearts.

Nature didn't know wealth or society, it was as it had been for thousands of years, except for the damage humans did. Humans were the factor that changed. Most often humans were the factor Sam couldn't understand, it was why the life that suited her dad also suited her.

She missed her dad for many reasons, but one that struck her now was that she missed how little he cared of what people thought of him. It was research, he answered only to who he felt he had too, who he felt he needed to. His research had been a great passion in his life, but helping people had been the first passion in his life; he had taught it to her.

It was something Sam refused to let go of, she had studied medicine, chosen research and to survive she had come back to Hope island where she could be herself. She had needed to, slowly the mainland had been driving her crazy.

When she faced the facts she struggled with answering to people who only cared about money. It was something that would never go away, all she could do was distance herself. So that she didn't lay out the facts for them, another person's suffering, and pain was far more important to her; overshadowing profit margins. Sharing her mind would do no good.

And so Hope Island remained her sanctuary, it was a safe place for her to learn, to work and to think. She needed to think, to imagine, it was where the first inklings of insight came from; from there it was a puzzle she had to sort out and assemble. It was special, and it was a thrill that Sam loved. On Hope she could do that.

To pretend that the outside world would someday change. Now she had a choice, one she made with great caution. It was hope paying off, believing that the earth had been created to sustain life and for good; coming through. Yet she knew some would see it.

While she had carefully experimented and tested doses and side effects they would just see how high they could name a price. She would be carefully testing doses and side effects they would just see how high the price could go; where a dollar could be carved out. She had no doubt that if it was a cheaper, maybe even more effective avenue of treatment it would be bought up by some drug company and never heard of again.

Sam had chosen research, research didn't do well with profit margins; research was hope. She had seen many things pay off but this one was personal, to her it mattered; Sam was honored to finish it. Her father had devoted years to the study, she had devoted more. It was his most precious published work documenting the most the world had once known of Irukandji; the enigma. Now there was an answer.

Sam set the old journal aside, it was time to finish this, to put her own thoughts into ink. A few lines about the reason for her choice, for her life. The choice she had made to release this research to the entire medical and research community at once; only a select few friends had aided her in the project. This way no one could stop it, this was what her father had taught her.

'_Research is to hope, in nature and in life. To hope for a better tomorrow. Through the years, study and loyal hope the earth has answered many questions. Most who read this literature will never go on to learn or need these facts. _

_But to those who do, know that two lives were dedicate to this research, who or where is not important. It is the lives that can be saved by these treatments that need to be developed and implemented. The priority of research is reliability, every life is of the up most importance; medicine must be solid.'_


End file.
